July 16, 2021
The AAR mourns the passing of Carol P. Christ, a feminist historian, thealogian, professor, and longtime AAR member whose work was foundational in launching and elevating the Goddess movement in the US and other countries. She was seventy-five.
Christ graduated from Yale University with a phd in religious studies and went on to teach as a feminist scholar of women and religion, women’s spirituality, and Goddess studies, at institutions including Columbia University, Harvard Divinity School, Pomona College, San Jose State University, and the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she was an adjunct professor since the inception of the women’s spirituality, philosophy and religion graduate studies program in 1993. Christ published eight profoundly thoughtful and inspiring books, several in collaboration with her friend and colleague Judith Plaskow, whom she met at Yale.
A resident of Greece from 1987 up until her death, Christ founded and served as director of the Ariadne Institute and conducted pilgrimages to sacred sites in Greece containing artifacts of matriarchal religion. During her time in AAR, Christ co-chaired the AAR Women and Religion program unit for several years.
Christ's longtime friend and colleague, Mara Lynn Keller, said the following:
"I met Carol when we were graduate students at Yale and we continued being friends and colleagues for 50 years. I will miss Carol's brilliant mind, her eloquent and profound writing, her love of ancient Crete, and the Greek lifestyle she enjoyed sharing with many friends and colleagues and those who participated in her Goddess tours to Crete."